


Agree

by glassgoblin



Series: Carol's Word-A-Day Calendar [57]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 19:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3949642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassgoblin/pseuds/glassgoblin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the season five finale; Rick talks with Carol about what needs to be done to get the residents of Alexandria prepared to help themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Agree

“Carl told me about the lessons that you used to have for kids at the prison.” Rick looked up at Carol for only a few seconds, fiddling with the gun holster on his belt, and then looked out over the yard again. They were on the porch together, alone for a change, and he had a plan he wanted to discuss with her.

“And?” Carol leaned back on the porch swing, making it shift backwards until she braced her feet against the floorboards and sat at an angle. She looked up at Rick steadily, unapologetic.

“I think that maybe you should start those lessons again, here. At the meeting when I told everyone that they were going to change and that I would help them, this is part of what I had in mind. We have to do more, all of us, to make sure these people can defend themselves and become the type of community that can survive.” He paused again, letting his hand fall off of his gun. “There are people here that don’t know anything about helping themselves, not defensively any way. You said it yourself, they are like children. We need to fix that sooner rather than later, or at the first sign of danger they become a liability to us. We can’t have a burden like that right now.”

Carol nodded, “I agree. I can do knife lessons. It would be good to train people in gun safety and shooting as well. Maybe hand-to-hand or how to use their environment as an advantage.” She bit her lip, concentrating on the idea, and looked down the street at the other houses. Neighbors were sitting on their porches and chatting also, though she was sure that their conversations were about more innocent things.

“Exactly, and I think we have several people who can take on those lessons, if the people here are willing to work with us. There might be push-back at first, but that is why we need to show them the need for it.” He shifted his weigh, looking at her more directly. “I know you’ve been making nice with a lot of the residents, but they need to see that you can do more now. I need them to trust in all of us, and they’ve seen some erratic behavior from some of us, like Sasha. I want her to work with Tobin on training people to use rifles and other long-range guns.”

“That might be a chore; convincing her to help I mean. She seems like she might be getting to a better place, mentally, but we would have to be careful.” Carol shielded her eyes, waving as Michonne came up the walkway.

“Michonne.” Rick acknowledged the woman briefly, and she moved to lean against the rail in front of Carol. “We were talking lesson plans. I have something I’d like you and Glenn to do for that. You both have a lot of experience in fighting walkers close-up while on runs, so I’d like the two of you to be in charge of hand-to-hand lessons and how to read situations when out beyond the walls. I know you can’t teach them to have your instincts, but the basics might help some of them survive if the walls are breached or if we ever have to leave this place.”

She nodded, giving them both a serious look as she considered the request, “I can do that. We can teach them to use non-traditional weapons too, whatever might be at hand in any given situation which can be used as a bludgeon. Not everyone can have a sword, but maybe we need to do a search for more tools that are easily used by the inexperienced.”

“Good idea. Can you talk to Glenn about that? You’d both know what to look for out there,” Rick nodded, mostly to himself, “We’re all ready for action, but there are people here who probably haven’t had to miss a meal or walk more than a block in months. I feel a little like we’re starting a police academy, but in some ways that is exactly what we need right now.”

Michonne smirked, “Does that mean we can make them run laps and do push-ups to get in shape? I’d volunteer to do that. I would be a wonderful drill sergeant.”

Rick laughed again, “Sure, if that helps. They need to be able to run and know when to also.” He hesitated, looking at his hands for a moment, “I don’t want to screw this up by trying to take control of it all. There are things I could miss, there are ideas that I might not have. I don’t want to make the same mistakes I did at the prison. Maybe we should have had a brain-storming session.”

“We should do that soon so we can figure out who we want leading the lessons, and what lessons to have.” Carol let the swing move forward, swinging a little until it settled and stopped, “I was thinking that Carl might be another good teacher. He’s good with a hand gun and the responsibility would help. I think he’s been having trouble with the other kids because he doesn’t have their innocence anymore; he knows what is out there and he wants to help. He might be patient with all of the students, but I think he would have a good approach if you partnered him with Eric.”

“You would trust one of the residents to help teach defense lessons?” Rick hadn’t had a lot of contact with the couple that had brought them to Alexandria, though he knew Carol had spent time with Eric and that Daryl was friendly with Aaron.

“Absolutely, and he had gun experience. He backed-up Aaron on the road when they were recruiting, and I did some target practice with him a few weeks ago. They could help get the other residents to participate; maybe show that we’re not so bad after all when people are unsure of our motivations.”

Rick was quiet for several seconds and the two women exchanged a look, waiting to hear what he’d decide. “Alright. You know more of the people here and what they might be capable of doing. Think you could make a list of the ones who might be able to be relied upon to help us as our first line of defense? I think we might want to get them all together, and hash out a real plan later.”

Carol nodded, getting to her feet, “I’ll start that list right away.”


End file.
